Back in Black
by PreviouslyAnonymous
Summary: Sequel to Dirty Duds Done Dirt Cheap because we all want to know if Luke cracked under the pressure and gave Lorelai the satisfaction of seeing him freak out.


Back in Black

It was the day before Luke's 38th birthday. He flopped down on the couch, beer in hand, exhausted after a long day in the diner. Saturdays were always the busiest and with the town's Festival of Living Art he was open later than usual to feed the crowds. He could usually look forward to some quality time with his girlfriend on Saturday nights, but it just didn't work out this week. Tomorrow was out of the question too.

There was one birthday tradition he put in place over the years – to not mingle with anyone. Usually that took the form of Caesar covering the diner for the day so he could get away. Sometimes it would be warm enough to go fishing, but most of the time he spent the day in the cabin preparing it for winter and doing a sort of fall fixing as opposed to a spring cleaning. Having a girlfriend this year wouldn't change those plans. He still intended to get as far away as necessary to keep his sanity. He took a long sip of his beer and replayed the conversation he'd just had with Lorelai.

* * *

"Coffee," she rasped as she stumbled in to the diner and collapsed into the first empty chair, ignoring the 'Closed' sign hanging on the door.

"Rough night?" he asked, already pouring her a cup in her special mug, the biggest one he had.

"Not so much rough as exhausting," she replied before taking a big gulp of coffee, after which she closed her eyes and sighed. She folded her arms on the table and dropped her head down.

"Sure, sure. The Festival of Nutty Pictures will do that to you. How'd it go?" He set the carafe down on the table and sat next to Lorelai in the empty diner.

She rolled her head to the side, but kept it down on her arms, "Pretty well actually, aside from Kirk almost ruining The Last Supper by starting a fight with Judas. Rory was beautiful, but her ferret totally stole the show. The most stressful part was not flinching after Sookie's baby pager went off."

"Oh. I saw the square was cleared a while ago and thought you just went home to crash. How is Sookie doing?"

"She's great! They waited to page me until she was almost ready to start the pushing phase. I swear she was only pushing for 30 minutes before little Davey made his debut. Everyone's happy and healthy and they're over the moon. And we're all exhausted. I'm definitely going to need some pancakes for breakfast tomorrow. I need a reward for making it through the show, and of course to celebrate Davey!"

"Well at least you'll be able to get a good night's sleep. Can't say the same for Sookie and Jackson." He stood, refilled Lorelai's mug, and made his way back to the counter. "And Caesar can try out his new pancake recipe for you tomorrow."

"What?" Her head popped up. "Why can't you make me pancakes?"

"I'll be out of town," he replied nonchalantly.

"Why?" she whined as a pout took over her face. "What's so important that you can't make me pancakes tomorrow?"

"It's not a big deal, Lorelai. Caesar can make you pancakes tomorrow morning and I'll be back on Monday."

"We've been over this before, Luke!" she scoffed. "His pancakes aren't as good as yours. I'll need the good stuff after the day I've had."

He avoided spilling any details and finally placated Lorelai by saying he could make the batter before he left and all Caesar would have to do was get it on the griddle. She begrudgingly accepted, but made him promise to be back in time for dinner. That was a win in his book.

* * *

Luke shook his head and smiled. Wins with Lorelai were far and few between. She held a special power over him and it was rare that he could fight it. He kicked off his shoes, removed his hat, and scratched the back of his head before tossing the hat on the coffee table. The last time he could remember really sticking it to Lorelai was about six months ago, when he had done her laundry for her birthday. He definitely got the better of her then. Her plan to embarrass him backfired, hard. Not only did he did he touch all her lingerie; he kept his cool and got her riled up instead. After revealing which bra of hers was his favorite, he ran away and she had actually showed up in the diner the next morning for breakfast.

* * *

She had wild eyes. It was easy to see she was rattled. Rattled and looking for him. When he saw her storming across the square he hid in the back to gather himself.

"You've got this Danes. You're almost there. Don't screw this up." He took a deep breath and prepared for the worst. As he rounded the corner, Lorelai plowed into him.

"What the? Lorelai?"

"Don't you 'Lorelai' me, mister!" she pulled his wrists and led him into the storeroom. He breathed a sigh of relief. At least this whole ordeal wouldn't be public.

"What's going on? Is Rory okay?" he asked adding as much concern to his voice as possible. He knew all too well why she was there. She closed the door and turned to him, a deadly serious look on her face.

"Luke, I put 'laundry' on the list as a joke. Never in a million years did I think you'd actually do it. Not to mention that comment you made. You have a serious girlfriend, Luke. You're going to meet her parents!" She jabbed her finger into his chest before crossing her arms over her own chest. "As your _friend_ I felt it was really inappropriate."

He was taken aback. This was certainly not the conversation he was expecting. He figured the best thing to do would be to challenge her.

"I don't think it was inappropriate," he said calmly, leaning against a nearby table. "And I don't think you really think it was inappropriate either."

She reared back, and moved her arms swiftly to her side and balled her hands into fists.

"How can you say that, Luke? You touched my lingerie!"

"It was just a chore for your birthday, Lorelai. It was no big deal. Even if it was a joke, you shouldn't have put it on the list if it was going to make you uncomfortable to know that I touched all your underwear."

"You…I…," she stammered, "it doesn't make me uncomfortable to know you touch my underwear. What makes me uncomfortable is that I'm already a sore spot between you and Nicole. If she found out about this, she's going to hate me more than she already does!"

"Too late," he replied with a smirk.

"What! What do you mean too late?" she cried out in a panic.

"I told her yesterday."

"Oh my God, Luke, No!" she covered her face with her hands and shook back and forth. He felt a little bad.

"Relax, everything's fine." He pushed off from the table and reached toward her shoulder.

"How could it be fine, Luke? What did she say?" her blue eyes met his when she looked up and he knew he could tease her just a little more.

"Well, you were right about one thing."

"Huh?"

"She really does hate you," he laughed.

She reared back again looking significantly more distraught.

"Lorelai, I liked Nicole and spending time with her, but I don't want to be in a relationship with her. I talked to her yesterday and we broke up. I didn't actually tell her about your laundry, but that didn't stop her from unloading what she thought about you. And us, actually."

Her face immediately softened and she stepped toward him, putting a hand on his shoulder and giving a soft squeeze. It was a movement that didn't go unnoticed by Luke and he found it gave him a little more confidence.

"Oh, Luke, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. I've known for a while now that being with her wasn't really right and then I got the push I needed to do something about it."

"Oh, really? And what push was that?" she asked crossing her arms again.

"Well, it wasn't really a push. It was more like a trip."

"A trip?" she repeated, confusion all over her face.

"Yeah, I fell at your house. Tripped over my own feet, I think."

"Okay…and why does that mean you had to break up with Nicole?"

"Lorelai, I meant what I said when I left yesterday."

She took a step back from him, her browns knit together in thought. He took a larger step forward, crowding her space and putting his hands on the wall behind her on either side of her head.

He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "I really am a fan of your lacy red bra."

Her jaw dropped and she looked up at him. She must have seen the mischievous twinkle in his eye brought out by the smirk on his lips and tried to call his bluff. Or maybe she felt his love for her radiating out every fiber of his being. Perhaps a little bit of both because she reached up and kissed him softly before pulling him down to her and kissing him soundly.

* * *

Luke was officially 38 now. He'd gotten up extra early to ensure he was well on the way out of town before his normal waking time in case Lorelai had any sneaky plans to get him to stay and make her pancakes. He'd showered and dressed in record time then stopped in the dinner to leave a note for Caesar and to make the pancake batter for Lorelai. At the Cabin he spent most of the morning and afternoon doing chores. He found himself chuckling because, among other things, he had fixed some broken outlets, worked on the porch stairs and railway, and dealt with a loose floorboard. All things he had done for the Crapshack as part of his slave labor in April. Too bad his now favorite chore from that day wasn't something to be done at the cabin.

He packed up his tools and was on the road back to Stars Hollow by five o'clock. The dinner he got roped into was at seven and he needed time to get home and shower before picking her up. He spent the better part of the hour long drive back to Stars Hollow with visions of Lorelai in his head. If it were any other year, he'd be making his dinner at the cabin and relaxing by the fire with a beer. While that still seemed appealing, he added Lorelai to that image and it was infinitely better. He thought about her sitting on the counter teasing him while he made chili. He thought about her cuddling next to him on the couch. He thought about her on the floor in front of the fire, her naked body bathed in firelight. He smiled to himself and decided that it didn't have to be a dream. He'd make plans to bring her along next year.

After unloading the tools from his truck, he trudged up the stairs to his apartment, ready to wash the day off. Since he showered so quickly that morning, he took a little extra time, enjoying the hot water relaxing his muscles. When he was done, he dried off and wrapped the towel around his waist, combed his hair and walked out into his room. The plan was to dress up a bit since he didn't know for sure where they'd end up; part of the deal was that Luke didn't have to plan anything. He had pulled on his boxer-briefs and dropped the towel only to be greeted by a loud cat call from the kitchen where Lorelai was pouring a glass of wine and still wearing her coat.

"Geez!" he yelped as he jumped out of his skin. "God, Lorelai, don't do that!" He picked up his towel and threw it in his hamper, but before returning to find some jeans and a sweater, he noticed a second laundry basket. He picked it up and placed it on the bed.

"What's this doing here?" he asked as he pulled a familiar red bra from the pile of dirty clothes, which appeared to be all the lingerie he'd ever seen Lorelai wear.

"Well, I haven't forgotten how much you seemed to enjoy doing the laundry for my birthday. I figured the best present would be to let you do it again for your birthday. There are just two more items to add."

She slowly opened her coat and lowered it down her arms while taking several seductive steps in her black pumps towards him. There was a brand new black bra, a sophisticated, sheer lacy halter paired with bikini style bottoms from the same material. A bright red bow tied around her waist topped off the look.

"Happy Birthday, Luke," she half sung in her best Marilyn Monroe voice.

"Happy Birthday to me," Luke whispered in a daze, not bothering to figure out how Lorelai found out what today was. He was too busy taking in the image before him. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before. Her creamy white skin looked radiant and irresistible against the dark delicate details of the material. He pushed her laundry onto the floor with a wolfish smile.

"Come here," he said in a low gravelly voice. He could see her shiver and he couldn't wait another minute to get his hands on his new favorite bra.


End file.
